This one weird trick can speed up your iPhone
Earlier today on Twitter, I was reminded of a weird tip that speeds up your iPhone -- especially when it's doing something hard like restoring an iPhone from an iCloud backup.
The tip comes from Scott Hanselman, programmer for the Web Platform Team at Microsoft. And it's such a great tip because it's so simple.
TIL if you put your new iPhone on an ice pack it will restore from backup WAY WAY WAY faster. pic.twitter.com/beV5BiYHfm
— Scott Hanselman (@shanselman) October 11, 2021
And no, that's not some kind of joke or leg pull at the iPhone's expense. That's a genuine message from Apple, and, it really does say "Restoring from iCloud will resume when this iPhone cools down."
In fact, restoring from an iCloud backup is one of the scenarios mentioned by Apple in its support document about overheating.
This is what Apple has to say on the subject:
You might notice that your device feels warmer in these situations:
- When you set up your device the first time
- When you restore from a backup
- When apps reindex or reanalyze data, like Photos tagging for faces, places, or keywords after a software update
- When you use graphics-intensive or augmented-reality apps or features
Is it OK to put your iPhone on an ice pack? I have done this a few times, and I just have it wrapped in a cloth to keep moisture at bay.
Be sensible about it, and you'll be fine.
But don't do what one reader did and put their iPhone in the freezer to cool down, forget about it, and come back to it frozen solid. While that iPhone did thaw out and come back to life, home freezers temperatures hover around the minimum recommended storage temperature for the iPhone (-20º to 45ºC/-4º to 113ºF), so this stunt could have damaged it.
An ice pack is a clever solution because the temperature won't get anywhere near the lower end of the iPhone's operating temperatures (0º to 35ºC/32º to 95ºF).
I've heard about this iCloud throttling issue a few times the past few weeks from new iPhone owners, and it suggests that the iPhone 13 may be more sensitive to thermal issues than earlier releases.